Remembering one of Sri Lanka’s most eminent physiologists K. N. Seneviratne

Many distinguished academics, clinicians and scientists have paid tribute to him by delivering the annual K. N. Seneviratne memorial oration which commenced in 1987, with the inaugural oration being delivered by his PhD supervisor, Professor David Whitteridge FRS. Professor Whitteridge was the last direct pupil of the great Oxford Neurophysiologist, Sir Charles Sherrington OM, Nobel Laureate and President of the prestigious Royal Society of London founded in 1661.

The Physiological Society of Sri Lanka (PSSL) annually honours the memory of the second Ceylonese Professor of Physiology, Professor K. N. Seneviratne, one of the most eminent physiologists Sri Lanka has ever produced, who had made a momentous contribution to the field of physiology and postgraduate medical education in Sri Lanka.

Keerthi Nissanka Seneviratne was born in Southern Sri Lanka in 1929. He had his schooling at Royal College, Colombo and university education in the Colombo Medical School. He graduated MBBS with honours in 1954, with a distinction in Medicine and a Gold Medal in Operative Surgery. In the second MB examination he obtained a distinction in Physiology. He joined the Department of Physiology, Colombo Medical School as a lecturer in 1958. He acquired a PhD in Neurophysiology, as well as his life partner, Alison, from Edinburgh, UK. He was appointed to the Chair of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo at the age of 39 years and held this post for 13 years.

Many distinguished academics, clinicians and scientists have paid tribute to him by delivering the annual K. N. Seneviratne memorial oration which commenced in 1987, with the inaugural oration being delivered by his PhD supervisor, Professor David Whitteridge FRS. Professor Whitteridge was the last direct pupil of the great Oxford Neurophysiologist, Sir Charles Sherrington OM, Nobel Laureate and President of the prestigious Royal Society of London founded in 1661. Professor Whitteridge described Professor Seneviratne as “very intelligent, quick and accurate in analysis, careful and critical in dealing with data and their interpretations, persistent and skilled as an experimentalist, exceptionally clear and logical in presenting his work”. What more could a supervisor have asked from a PhD student?

Professor Seneviratne’s immediate successor to the Chair of Physiology in Colombo, Professor Carlo Fonseka, writing in a newspaper article on the day prior to the inaugural oration had this to say of Professor Seneviratne. “This large hearted giant of a man was spontaneously self-effacing, consciously noncompetitive, disarmingly nonaggressive and pathologically publicity shy”.

In 1981, Professor Seneviratne left Sri Lanka to take up an appointment with the World Health Organization, as Regional Advisor in Health Manpower Development. His untimely death in 1986, at the age of 56, left a void in the field of physiology which to date has not been filled.

To sum up the life and work of this great personality, I have to turn again to Professor Carlo Fonseka who once said that “I have now realized that a ceremonial oration does not provide enough space for a comprehensive survey of the many splendoured personality and multifaceted work of K. N. Seneviratne – a scholar, doctor, physiologist, scientist, educationist, humorist, internationalist, administrator, volunteer army captain and a university don.”

To commemorate this great gentleman, this year’s K. N. Seneviratne memorial oration will be delivered by Professor Sudharshani Wasalathanthri, Professor in Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo on a very timely topic “Lifestyle modifications: A physiological approach to combat metabolic syndrome”. Professor Wasalathanthri graduated MBBS from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo in 1991 with second class upper division honours with a distinction in obstetrics and gynaecology. She obtained a PhD degree from the University of Colombo in 2001 on reproductive endocrinology. She is an excellent teacher and an accomplished researcher in physiology. She has received the Presidential Award for Scientific Publications in 2001 and 2005 and NRC merit award in 2013 and 2014. It will be a great tribute to Professor Seneviratne, that the 32nd memorial oration will be delivered by Professor Sudharshani Wasalathanthri, a Professor in Physiology in his own department and the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.

The oration will be held at the New Building Lecture Theatre, Faculty of Medicine, Kynsey Road, Colombo at 6.30 p.m. on November 23.

Professor Vajira Weerasinghe

(Senior Professor of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya and Past President of the Physiological Society of Sri Lanka